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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the Order of Freedom to Ukrainian athlete disqualified this Thursday from the Milan Winter Olympic Games for defying the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ban on him competing with a helmet with photographs of Ukrainian athletes who have died during the war.
In the decree in which Zelensky decorated the athlete, skeleton competitor Vladyslav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian president explains that it is a recognition of the Olympic athlete’s “selfless service to the Ukrainian people” and his “civic courage and patriotism in defending the ideals of freedom and democratic values.”
The IOC prohibited Heraskevych from wearing during the tests the helmet with which he wanted to honor the Ukrainian athletes who died in the war caused by the Russian invasion, invoking a regulation that prohibits political demonstrations in competitions.
The competitor in skeleton – an Olympic type of sled descent – refused to give up his helmet.
Both the Ukrainian Government and Heraskevych and his team have defended their position by ensuring that honoring the memory of the victims of the Russian invasion is in line with the Olympic values of peace and does not violate any IOC rules.
An IOC spokesperson also said that messages like the one Heraskevych intended to send could not be allowed due to the impossibility of addressing in the Games the injustices caused by the 130 conflicts that, he said, are currently open in the world.
Zelensky and the Government and other Ukrainian institutions have also criticized that the IOC has allowed – as it did in the last Summer Games in Paris – the participation of Russian athletes in Milan as neutral athletes.
Russian athletes cannot participate under their flag due to sanctions imposed against their country for having invaded Ukraine.